john kerry in 2004 won it by 1 percentage point, and then mitt romney in this election just last week won it by 5 percentage points but lost. it raises the question, you know, it's always good to win independent voters, but it might not determinative of an election. >> what is the lesson learned here. it's great to consider those that are independent, they're not strongly tied to one aparty or the other. if they're not the difference maker, not that they should be ignored, but how much do you play to them? >> the difference maker seems to be in all the elections the party identification. having democrats or republicans more than the opposition, that's a very good indication who is going to end up winning an election. the other thing is how do you define "independents"? are they right down the middle and swing from one election to another? or as the theory goes, when the political wins are against their party, they're republican, they're not happy with the republican party. they say i'm going to call myself an independent because i'm angry with what's going on the last two or three yea